Businessman, Alexandre Soares dos Santos said that hates Chinese investment in Portugal, and reckons all-in-all that it does not do much for the country.
The respected businessman and former boss of Jerónimo Martins decided that he hates Chinese investment here as it brings no new management and no new knowledge.
Alexandre Soares dos Santos was speaking at the conference ‘Portugal Examined' on the theme of 'Three generations, three views of the country,' organised by Exame magazine in partnership with Banco Popular.
At the end of the debate, the businessman declined to speak to reporters, saying he was late for an event in Aveiro and was then off for a Chinese.
During his speech and back on message, Alexandre Soares dos Santos argued that "the President should be obliged to summon the political parties to set a plan for 10 or 15 years" for the country.
This may be beyond the President’s mental capabilities but should indeed be on Cavaco Silva’s agenda despite his no doubt painful recollection of the fudge he made of calming the tension created by Paulo Portas who threw all available toys from his pram to screw a better deal from Prime Minister Passos Coelho by threatening to walk away from the fragile ruling coalition.
President Cavaco Silva's fatherly advice to 'calm down a be friends' resulted in the upstart Portas increasing dramatically his influence and power base by forcing the creation of the post of deputy PM, which he then filled and having his acolytes appointed to top political positions.
Alexandre Soares dos Santos was right when he observed that "We walk permanently into change without knowing where we want to go," while considering that is now is more urgent than ever that there is a political agreement between the main parties in order successfully to run the country.
If dos santos is calling for a coalition, there already is one. If he is calling for an all party coalition then the public might spot that the country is not at war and a democracy of one party has been tried here before.
